United drops plan to charge for Europe meals

News from the wonderful world of airlines:

Bowing to pressure from passengers, United has decided to drop a plan to start charging passengers in coach for meals on some overseas flights, citing "candid feedback'' from customers.
United had intended to charge $6 for snack boxes and $9 for salads and sandwiches in coach on flights from Dulles to Europe starting Oct. 1.
Robin Urbanski, a United spokeswoman, told Bloomberg News that not only were passengers miffed at the prospect of having to pay for food they were also not happy that they couldn't get a hot meal (have these people ever eaten airline food?).
United did go ahead with plans to end free snacks in coach. Earlier the carrier dropped the freebies on shorter flights and yesterday halted them on flights of longer than two hours.

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Starting Sept. 9, Southwest says it will no longer take cash for payment of cocktails, beer, wine, and Lo-Carb Monster energy drinks.
Instead the discounter says that it will accept credit and debit cards and Rapid Rewards drink coupons.
The really important news, however, is that Southwest plans to keep offering free snacks and soft drinks.